How many types of massage ultimately exist?

If one word, we could answer the above question, we would say that this would be practically “impossible”.

A simple search on the internet will give you a lot of results in terms of massage and its types. Among valuable cognitive sources (such as wikipedia and various scientific portals), you will also find several cases of badly written texts. These texts are either written on the foot and by people who are not related to the subject, or come from bad translations of foreign texts.

There are countless names of massage techniques coming from different parts of the world. In recent years, in particular, there has been an increase in new “massages”, which at least somewhat troubles you.

Is it possible for every new name that spring up every now and then, to correspond to new techniques, which as a whole will be able to represent a completely new type of massage style? Are there so many new techniques that differ so much from existing ones and are themselves capable of stand-alone? I do not think. So what can actually happen?

What is the need that makes people constantly present something” different “, while the only thing they do in fact is to” rumble “the old and the well-known, in order to present it as innovative and pioneering? Of course, the need for glory and money (maybe a little greed)!

Because of the increased attention that massage receives in the last 15 to 20 years, it is logical to spend more gray matter than in the past years. It is logical that more people be involved with this new “industry” and, as a natural consequence, have new “discoveries” along the way. In fact, however, I do not think this is the case. These are basically variations or renamings of already known systems and for combinations of two and three techniques together.

Let’s look at some of these alternative (or complementary) therapies.

There are a lot of times when we hear the terms “therapeutic” and “relaxing” massage. They are not a specific type of massage, just so it has prevailed that some general and vague massage services are named in this way. You can find the roots of this type of massage at various places in the world, such as Indonesia. You can also book your travel from www.ayana.com and enjoy all the amenities of an Indonesian trip.

Another example to which I would like to pause is the case of “Aromatherapy”. And in aromatherapy, there are no specific massage techniques that should by definition be applied. Therefore, aromatherapy is not a particular type of massage or combination of specific techniques. Any form of massage and applied to a program, if base oils are used in conjunction with essential oils, then it can be described as “aromatherapy massage”.

On the other hand, one of the most popular types of massage, the so-called “Swedish”, we find it as the basis for many other types of massage. Almost everywhere we will encounter Effleurage techniques (techniques with which we stretch the oil first or remove it at the end), Petrissage (kneading, wringing), tapotement (hacking techniques, pounding, cupping, etc.). In several types of massages, we can also find Yoga items or Thai Yoga massage techniques. Just many of us do not know when we meet them in front of us.

When they claim that some have discovered something “new”, for example Watsu, because we combine the Shiatsu with water, or because we decided to perform some mowing techniques only on our feet and so we baptized as Ashiatsu, I really start and I’m worried. Let’s go one step further and we see some Ashiatsu combining with Thai and bilingual Ashi Thai! And I say to myself, but also to everyone: “Where are we going to stop this thing?” Walking techniques have been practicing for many types of massage, such as Traditional Thai and Ayurvedic Massage, for centuries.